It will most possibly happen. Nobody will care. The helmets are perfectly distinguishable. Wash your mouth before you post.

I will care and I dont think they are perfectly distinguishable at all. I'll deal with it, but it'll certainly be a bit annoying at times. This'll be one of the occasions where I'll have to use the t-bar to tell them apart at a glance.

The Spa picture says it all really. They even made the front of the airbox red to be more distinguishable. I still don't watch the t-cams a lot and I know on Mercedes it matches the helmet, gloves and shoes of the driver. But the other teams? I hardly can tell them apart. If they colored the mirrors as well (as some teams used to do) it would be easier. That isn't a part that gets rammed of during the race. The back wing neither, as replacing it during the race is nigh impossible with the DRS stuff.

Why isn't the whole t-cam one color? It is black with a stickers on it. Other thing is, when I first watched F1, most noses were low and you could see the start number on the front. With the current horizontal style noses, the only view you see the number is the view from the helicopter.

Nobody has ever really been able to make a connection with Seb. He always has a new, more ridiculous helmet for every race. He's not forming a persona for himself, everyone just sees him as some Red Bull rent boy who can drive abit fast. He also refuses to join Twitter too, so he's lost that connection with the fans/outside world also. The guy could put in some extra effort into carving out a personality for himself, but that's just my opinion...

Maybe, it's just not important for him to have lots of followers on twitter for now and, you know, that could be part of his personality.

The Spa picture says it all really. They even made the front of the airbox red to be more distinguishable. I still don't watch the t-cams a lot and I know on Mercedes it matches the helmet, gloves and shoes of the driver. But the other teams? I hardly can tell them apart. If they colored the mirrors as well (as some teams used to do) it would be easier. That isn't a part that gets rammed of during the race. The back wing neither, as replacing it during the race is nigh impossible with the DRS stuff.

Why isn't the whole t-cam one color? It is black with a stickers on it. Other thing is, when I first watched F1, most noses were low and you could see the start number on the front. With the current horizontal style noses, the only view you see the number is the view from the helicopter.

You can see the numbers very well and for example the Ferrari's have clear markings.

Presumably because it's easier to produce them in one colour and then add the stickers as needed.

I'm surprised so many people claim to find it difficult to use the T-Cam for identification. The lead driver's has been red since 2004. The 2nd drivers was originally plain black but then they changed it to yellow in 2007. So that's at least five years where all you have to do is learn that one driver has a red one and the other a yellow one. I'm guessing it has to do with how you think about things rather than how easy or difficult it is.

However, I'm a strong advocate of easy to read nose numbers. A few teams have done that in recent years but not enough for my liking. But to be fair, back in the 80s and 90s you often had teams putting their numbers in stupid places too. Try the 94 Ligier or a Leyton House March from the front to see what I mean.

Nobody has ever really been able to make a connection with Seb. He always has a new, more ridiculous helmet for every race. He's not forming a persona for himself, everyone just sees him as some Red Bull rent boy who can drive abit fast. He also refuses to join Twitter too, so he's lost that connection with the fans/outside world also. The guy could put in some extra effort into carving out a personality for himself, but that's just my opinion...

At least for his German fans, he doesn't lose anything as he's not on Twitter. In Germany nobody (except for some attentionwhores and media-ppls) gives a sh*t about Twitter. Only people trying to make something out of Twitter and making it far bigger than it actually is, are people working in the media trying to show how up to date they are. Everyone else just doesn't care.

With an onboard, there is no hope of identifying the car in front of, I usually revert to live timing to find the guy in front.

I used google images for start pics of F1 races. But it is very poor since the mid/end nineties to find a car barring the helmet design. You see mostly a visor and identical cars. The rest of the helmet is sunk in the car.
The T-Cam is on top of the car, usually a place where you don't look at a glance. They use quite a lot of camera angles where you can't see the T-cam very well.

I think Rosberg will use his dad's design, or perhaps take on the design in red, so Hamilton keeps yellow and we have the same colors as this year.

T cam says it all but i do see where people are coming from if you look at this picture as an example.

This picture does show it quite well, and it's a zoomed-in still image too. Now imagine a live TV feed, or god forbid, actually being at the race track in the stands. It'd be really unhelpful in terms of identifying people. I'm not saying it would be impossible, because obviously there's minor differences...but it would be nearly impossible.

I really do hope it's Hamilton that changes...would be gutted if they make Rosberg change because Hamilton is too stubborn, popular and of course the Senna argument.

At least for his German fans, he doesn't lose anything as he's not on Twitter. In Germany nobody (except for some attentionwhores and media-ppls) gives a sh*t about Twitter. Only people trying to make something out of Twitter and making it far bigger than it actually is, are people working in the media trying to show how up to date they are. Everyone else just doesn't care.

Completely agree.

I really do hope it's Hamilton that changes...would be gutted if they make Rosberg change because Hamilton is too stubborn, popular and of course the Senna argument.

But you don't mind if they make Hamilton change because Rosberg is too stubborn etc?(I doubt they can make anyone change)

Grey came to Nico helmet when he joined Merc. So the grey is Merc silver. Now his helmet has less grey, almost all yellow, which, with MS's red helmet, was meant to express Germany's red and yellow, I assume. If Nico's helmet stays all yellow, it's quite different from Lewis's, so I think it will be ok.

Considering Nico has been at the team for longer, I'd say he's allowed some leeway on this matter.

Fair point but Hamilton has had the yellow helmet for longer and I think the drivers are supposed to have equality so the team probably wouldn't want to be seen to be favouring Nico on this matter. The team may let them keep their current designs or they may request that one of them changes and see who minds the least. Rosberg might not mind because he hasn't had the yellow for his entire racing career like Hamilton. Hamilton might not mind because he might like a new design for a fresh start with a new team.

I think Rosberg will use his dad's design, or perhaps take on the design in red, so Hamilton keeps yellow and we have the same colors as this year.

Why on earth would Rosberg take a red helmet? It has never appeared in any of his or his dad's helmets. Rosberg and Lewis will both keep their helmet colours if they want. I don't get why this topic has stretched to four pages. This discussion is pointless.

I thought that the one thing Mercedes did right in 3 years was get the colour coding right with their drivers. MS had his red helmet, red gloves and red T-cam on the car, Nico with the yellow helmet gloves and T-cam. At first glance you could always tell who was driving. Now even that looks like it's going to stop.

Rosberg needs to chance his colors. Asking Lewis to give up his iconic yellow helmet would be stupid. And as the photo above shows, Lewis is using a yellow helmet way longer than Nico. Nico can go pink.

Rosberg needs to chance his colors. Asking Lewis to give up his iconic yellow helmet would be stupid. And as the photo above shows, Lewis is using a yellow helmet way longer than Nico. Nico can go pink.

Rosberg needs to chance his colors. Asking Lewis to give up his iconic yellow helmet would be stupid. And as the photo above shows, Lewis is using a yellow helmet way longer than Nico. Nico can go pink.

Nico is long time Mercedes works ace for 3 whole seasons while Lewis is new recruit.Officially McLaren is customer team only, who even have rival line of supercars to Mercedes.

Nobody has ever really been able to make a connection with Seb. He always has a new, more ridiculous helmet for every race. He's not forming a persona for himself, everyone just sees him as some Red Bull rent boy who can drive abit fast. He also refuses to join Twitter too, so he's lost that connection with the fans/outside world also. The guy could put in some extra effort into carving out a personality for himself, but that's just my opinion...

No. You are right. Seb is the most successful current driver in the most widely watched motorsport series in the world, and has won the last three championships on the trot. He obviously needs twitter to get a bit more recognition as nobody has ever heard of him. I have just no idea of his personality or what he's about, primarily because I don't get to read 140 CHARACTER messages from him every day. 140 characters ! That really gives people enough space to assert their personality, doesn't it ? I can't even construct a decent sentence in that amount of space, let alone give an inkling of my personality.

Jeez, your bias in this thread is telling. You hate Lewis and you hate Seb, that much is evident. Even though Seb is widely believed amongst these forumites to be at the highest level of ability, along with Fernando and Lewis, to you he is just a Red Bull rent driver with no personality. And Lewis is barging his way into a team, almost as if the team don't actually want him there, but he's using his power to muscle his way there anyway. And anybody who has a differing view than yours about helmet colour is an idiot ?

Very worst posts of the year, and there was some rather stiff competition there too. Well done.

It sounds quite childish really but I suppose it's really the first battle they are going to have! Can't see why Nico should have to change. Lewis' is more famous but he's moving to Nico's team. I can see the management just letting them both wear yellow and avoiding the whole issue.

Well Lewis has been changing up his design a lot more throughout 2012, so to be honest if anyone changes I'd guess it'll be him. IMO the pearlescent white version he used for Singapore was stunning, so if I was him I'd use that.

I guess it will be sorted one way or the other.But this thread has shown that the FIA urgently needs to adress the problem of driver numbers being virtually invisible nowdays.Otherwise we will be stuck like the people on TNF Farina or Fangio? (not that research is bad, but it helps if the organisers would remove some obstacles)